The New South Wales south coast town of Tathra has been devastated by a lightening fast fire storm. More than 70 homes and businesses have been destroyed, and hundreds forced to take shelter in evacuation centres – and the threat is not yet over.

The focus will naturally be on the athletes, the competition and hopefully plenty of gold at next month’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. But there’s also a lot going on behind the scenes that will help make the games tick.

It has taken three years for Robert Shastati to admit he took the drug “ice” on the day he crashed a car into an embankment, killing his seven-year-old nephew at Williamtown in Port Stephens. At a sentencing hearing today, the boy’s mother told of her enduring pain at the loss of her young son.

A 2-year-old boy playing outside his family’s Hunter home just before dinner… is now in hospital fighting for his life. The child was struck by a reversing car in Woodberry, and the woman who allegedly ran him over has been charged with ‘driving while under the influence of drugs’.

It’s a message we’ve all heard before, and shouldn’t need to hear again… Be careful on the roads. With five crash-related deaths in New South Wales in the past 24 hours alone, police are pleading with drivers to heed the advice.

$150,000 in prizemoney drew a strong field to Newcastle today for the running of the Newmarket Handicap. The feature had two local hopes, but it was the Mark Newnham trained Lanciato first past the post.

There were unsettling scenes outside a Sydney police station overnight – a driver allegedly high on drugs narrowly avoiding crashing into a police officer. When the Newcastle man was eventually stopped, police were shocked to discover two children sitting unrestrained in the back.

“Grossly inadequate care” is what a coroner today found to be to blame for the death of a young mother, just days after she gave birth. Michaela Perrin developed an infection following her caesarean section at Lismore Base Hospital, but when she sought help, she was sent home with painkillers.